Happenings Sony shuts down Concord, the woke $300 million video game flop

[Poker]

It's over. Sony bought Firewalk Studios, makers of this game, for $300 million just to shut down the game after less than a month since it hit the stores. 8 years in development, chasing the outdated trend of hero shooters, wokeified/aesthetically revolting character designs (including trannies), all of that gone like tears in the rain. Likely one of the biggest flops in the history of video games, if not the biggest. This is what chasing the fabled "Modern audiences" takes you to.

An important update on Concord

Concord fans -- we’ve been listening closely to your feedback since the launch of Concord on PlayStation 5 and PC and want to thank everyone who has joined the journey aboard the Northstar. Your support and the passionate community that has grown around the game has meant the world to us...

blog.playstation.com

An important update on Concord

Concord fans — we’ve been listening closely to your feedback since the launch of Concord on PlayStation 5 and PC and want to thank everyone who has joined the journey aboard the Northstar. Your support and the passionate community that has grown around the game has meant the world to us.

However, while many qualities of the experience resonated with players, we also recognize that other aspects of the game and our initial launch didn’t land the way we’d intended. Therefore, at this time, we have decided to take the game offline beginning September 6, 2024, and explore options, including those that will better reach our players.

While we determine the best path ahead, Concord sales will cease immediately and we will begin to offer a full refund for all gamers who have purchased the game for PS5 or PC. If you purchased the game for PlayStation 5 from the PlayStation Store or PlayStation Direct, a refund will be issued back to your original payment method.

Customers who purchased from other digital storefronts will also be refunded. More information about refunds from Steam and Epic can be found below:

Steam Store – Steam Store will refund players who bought the game over the coming days. Steam will send confirmation of the refund once it has been processed.

Epic Games Store – Epic Games Store will refund players who bought the game over the coming days and will contact each customer directly to confirm that the refund has been processed.

Other retailer refunds – For customers who have purchased a physical copy at a retailer location outside of PlayStation directly, please refer to the refund process of the retailer you purchased it from to obtain your refund.

Once refunded, players will no longer have access to the game.

We’ll keep you updated and thank you again to all the Freegunners who have joined us in the Concord galaxy.

* Refunds for PlayStation Store and PlayStation Direct purchases may take 30-60 days to appear on your bank statement. If your original payment source was unavailable, the purchase amount will be refunded to your PSN wallet.

Here's the roster that made it all possible:

Just earlier this morning before this announcement, the press was all giddy at the "historical" "achievement" of Concord™ being the first game with a playable black trans woman.

Spoiler: Not safe for senses

Ah, sweet priorities.

 

[PhantomXero1x]

oh no anyways

 

[JX475]

It was inevitable. Can not wait for Marathon to fail badly so that way the Sony HQ can go back to Japan.

 

[Christi Junior]

Oh wow, that hideous niggerfaggot actually turned out to be a tranny?

Also, since nobody mentioned it yet, I'd like to remind everyone that all characters in the gayme explicitly list their "preferred pronouns". Yes, even the fucking robot.

Soyny, you truly are the worst...

 

[YakuInTheFlesh]

I really don't know what anyone thought, when they were making this. Ignore all the woke parts for a moment.
8 years ago a little game called Overwatch came out. Any other hero shooter for the next 4 years didn't stand a chance because "Why would I switch when I already have Overwatch?". And then Battle Royal became the new big thing. So not only did they miss the trend, but they didn't even adapt to new ones.
But even ignoring that, they did the worst thing when it comes to a hero shooter. They didn't make interesting and distinct heroes.
I don't need the characters to be overtly sexy or whatever, but these are just blobs consisting of a single color that isn't even vibrant, but more muted. This is just not interesting to look at. Especially if I'm supposed to spend 100's of hours on it.
I also saw a little gameplay and had a hard time distinguishing between friends and foes. It looked like the devs never played a game.

They should've retooled it into something else 2 years into development, but instead thought they could save it by going as "diverse" as possible. I'm glad this bombed so hard and can't wait for more flops of this nature.
BlackRock is drying up and they can no longer spend 10's or 100's of millions without any return. It will be interesting to see, how the next few years will look, because I'm sure there are 10 more Concords in development right now, that haven't been revealed yet and I'm sure they are in a panic right about now.

 

[Ebicentre]

Concord lasted ten days. TEN DAYS. There's an argument to be made that this is the worst video game launch of all time, and that's just in terms of budget v.s. sales. E.T. has nothing on this!

 

[JX475]

I really don't know what anyone thought, when they were making this. Ignore all the woke parts for a moment.
8 years ago a little game called Overwatch came out. Any other hero shooter for the next 4 years didn't stand a chance because "Why would I switch when I already have Overwatch?". And then Battle Royal became the new big thing. So not only did they miss the trend, but they didn't even adapt to new ones.

I would argue Overwatch was just an imitation of TF2 but for Consoles which had nice looking characters. So it became really popular on Consoles for a time, and then fell off. TF2 still is around while Overwatch had to go for Overwatch 2 and Fortnite is sort of trying to do everything in order to be relevant again. I think this is why Valve never has given console much preference except for a one time only Orange Box deal, because console audiences are not consistent playerbases. But I will agree, that Fortnite, Overwatch and TF2 kind of understood their audiences. This one is more funny though because it's a Politically Correct Corporate Generic clone of a imitation of a real copy lol.

But even ignoring that, they did the worst thing when it comes to a hero shooter. They didn't make interesting and distinct heroes.
I don't need the characters to be overtly sexy or whatever, but these are just blobs consisting of a single color that isn't even vibrant, but more muted. This is just not interesting to look at. Especially if I'm supposed to spend 100's of hours on it.
I also saw a little gameplay and had a hard time distinguishing between friends and foes. It looked like the devs never played a game.

Let's call it for what it is. It's generic Politically Correct pandering that has failed over and over, has Government funding and the only real winners are those who have scammed investors out of their money, because it never made it's money back due to 234 million in the hole and refunds included it's the biggest Loss in gaming history. It's all the common things everyone has seen in Western Media and is just tired of it being not beautiful characters, not interesting characters, but ugly characters, the same type of diversity characters, weird dances and weird music to seem cool with no substance or style. I think it's outdated because it shows it has no depth beneath the surface.

They should've retooled it into something else 2 years into development, but instead thought they could save it by going as "diverse" as possible. I'm glad this bombed so hard and can't wait for more flops of this nature.
BlackRock is drying up and they can no longer spend 10's or 100's of millions without any return. It will be interesting to see, how the next few years will look, because I'm sure there are 10 more Concords in development right now, that haven't been revealed yet and I'm sure they are in a panic right about now.

I think it's because they not only went diverse, but possibly may have had SBI/ESG funding as well and tried to pivot on diversity. Which has been killing a lot of companies lately. I will say you are right though with tons of Concords being in development. Because remember Sony said they had 12, they then had to cut it down to 4 or 6 because GAAS has huge upfront costs and it needs to constantly make it's money back over time, while for Gacha it's in reverse(although it's changing because 3D modeling etc does add up the costs). Sony is also in huge trouble because it kills it's own growth in multiple ways.

1. All their games require you to have a Sony account which has been hacked a few times not only the last 5 years if you are on Steam, this hurts because before when it was optional people were more willing to make an account and to sign in and there were a lot of userbase on Steam for HDII. But the hard requirement really hurts them in trying to get their MAU up which has been going downward throughout the years and it's obvious desperation to pad the numbers.
2. They still have censorship in their policy and double standards when they apply it. Western Games can get away with full on sex scenes, full on gore, full on sexual themes. But for Japan even if they add in some bouncy mechanics, or some implied lewd moments, they get told to tone it down. But the one thing they agree on is all characters must be ugly, they must not look good at all because they hate beauty in all forms.
3. Blue Ocean audiences are starting to fade out here, and I do not think that catering to Casual audiences ever works, because while yes a lot of them buy, they are too inconsistent and rarely stay around for awhile it's usually 3 or 4 years, then suddenly it just goes away. Which is why we are seeing mass layoffs happening and these games flopping.

I do think we will see Marathon bomb and another game do so as well. The HQ is going to be moved back to Japan soon. It's inevitable because the audience is gone for these kinds of games and they have much better options than Sony DEI products.

 

[YakuInTheFlesh]

I think this is why Valve never has given console much preference except for a one time only Orange Box deal

I would have yo disagree with you there. Valve had quite a few "big" outings on consoles. Half-Life on PS2 which wasn't just a port, but had a special co-op campaign that never came to PC and Portal 2 which was (iirc) a timed exclusive and came out first in general for PS3 with added support for the move controller (even having special chambers for it, if I don't remember that wrong).
A big problem, why valve is not on console is the inventory system. The way valve implemented it, is very profitable to them and wouldn't work on consoles. They would need to essentially strip a big component of their current games for them to be able to publish them.

Let's call it for what it is.

My point was here to show, that the game was lacking even without all the politics. It was flawed not only in it's message, but in it's core.
I agree, that DEI, LGBT, etc. is bad and should be left out of games, but I also can't stand having to constantly return to politics even in instances like this, where even without it would be a bad game and flop.

1. All their games require you to have a Sony account which has been hacked a few times not only the last 5 years if you are on Steam, this hurts because before when it was optional people were more willing to make an account and to sign in and there were a lot of userbase on Steam for HDII. But the hard requirement really hurts them in trying to get their MAU up which has been going downward throughout the years and it's obvious desperation to pad the numbers.
2. They still have censorship in their policy and double standards when they apply it. Western Games can get away with full on sex scenes, full on gore, full on sexual themes. But for Japan even if they add in some bouncy mechanics, or some implied lewd moments, they get told to tone it down. But the one thing they agree on is all characters must be ugly, they must not look good at all because they hate beauty in all forms.
3. Blue Ocean audiences are starting to fade out here, and I do not think that catering to Casual audiences ever works, because while yes a lot of them buy, they are too inconsistent and rarely stay around for awhile it's usually 3 or 4 years, then suddenly it just goes away. Which is why we are seeing mass layoffs happening and these games flopping.

1. I don't think to many care about that, unless it is the current topic at hand. I haven't heard a single "Oh btw. concord needs a Sony account so that is also why its bad.". Or see Ghost of Tsushima. Besides the early cries it hasn't stopped people from buying it
2. Pretty much, it has gotten a bit better, since JP has started to adapt the PC more.
3. Casual audiences still work, and are a gold mine, but only when they aren't busy with another game. Game companies have shot themselves in the foot with live service games. Sure a successful one makes you tons of money, but that is at the detriment of long term gains. Before you could release your slop once or twice a year and make millions of sales, but now you need to somehow get people to stop playing what is popular and have them check out your new live service game. This is not possible, because for casuals it is "I play what my friends play", since they are more in it for the social aspect gaming provides than anything else.

Sony is a multimedia monopoly. It's sad, but it has to get worse, before it gets better. Sony HQ will stay in the US for the foreseeable future.

 

[Narmy]

My point was here to show, that the game was lacking even without all the politics. It was flawed not only in it's message, but in it's core.
I agree, that DEI, LGBT, etc. is bad and should be left out of games, but I also can't stand having to constantly return to politics even in instances like this, where even without it would be a bad game and flop.

The thing to remember is that this is ultimately a war of narratives. Games are getting worse because of the narrative pushed to Japanese companies about what westerners want. It doesn't matter that the narrative isn't true, all that matters is that it is constantly repeated. If we want any chance of opposing that then we need to push our own narrative, not just be caught up in technical details. So the anti DEI narrative should be strongly pushed anytime there is a chance.

 

[anru]

Reject all of this nonsense, return to locally hosted Half Life multiplayer servers.

 

[Christi Junior]

I agree, that DEI, LGBT, etc. is bad and should be left out of games, but I also can't stand having to constantly return to politics even in instances like this, where even without it would be a bad game and flop.

The game might have done poorly without all the DIE-pandering, fat, ugly niggers and obnoxious "preferred pronouns" plastered onto every character page, but Concord didn't just do poorly, it did absurdly, IMPOSSIBLY bad for a major Sony game that got massively shilled. Confirmed flops like Suicide Squad have boasted 20 times the number of peak players as Concord managed, and estimated sales of 25,000 copies sold on week 1 aren't just bad for a game of this kind, they're so much worse than the low-end estimates that it's not even funny. And if anything even that estimate sounds overly generous.

For such a major game launching on platforms with significant userbases to do THIS shit, it can't just be mediocre or even bad, it has to be actively REPULSIVE - which Concord, entirely due to DIE and being on the wrong side of the culture war, truly was.

 

[JX475]

The game might have done poorly without all the DIE-pandering, fat, ugly niggers and obnoxious "preferred pronouns" plastered onto every character page, but Concord didn't just do poorly, it did absurdly, IMPOSSIBLY bad for a major Sony game that got massively shilled. Confirmed flops like Suicide Squad have boasted 20 times the number of peak players as Concord managed, and estimated sales of 25,000 copies sold on week 1 aren't just bad for a game of this kind, they're so much worse than the low-end estimates that it's not even funny. And if anything even that estimate sounds overly generous.

For such a major game launching on platforms with significant userbases to do THIS shit, it can't just be mediocre or even bad, it has to be actively REPULSIVE - which Concord, entirely due to DIE and being on the wrong side of the culture war, truly was.

Not only that but 150 million dollars, and it sold very poorly and had such negative reception that it made no money due to it being fully refunded absolutely means this is the worst game in modern history that bombed and did not make any money.

The thing to remember is that this is ultimately a war of narratives. Games are getting worse because of the narrative pushed to Japanese companies about what westerners want. It doesn't matter that the narrative isn't true, all that matters is that it is constantly repeated. If we want any chance of opposing that then we need to push our own narrative, not just be caught up in technical details. So the anti DEI narrative should be strongly pushed anytime there is a chance.

Absolutely correct. We need to oppose it every chance we get that these games are DEI, even if they keep trying to change the name it will still be DEI.

What I think is messed up and ironic is Japan Studios was sacrificed for this game. Concord was supposed to be the STATEMENT game about how Japan Studio's did not make enough profit because they focused on AA and Indie games. While Concord was absolutely going to make tons of it. The 150 million was going to be for Japan Studios to make smaller and medium sized titles as a whole. People often forget that games are all about Budgets and Sales, not just Sales alone. People can say Gravity Rush failed, or XYZ game failed to make enough money or profit, but the huge glaring weakness is they were always lower budget and did make their money back or at least broke even because it did not need much sales. While the higher budget titles are more risky, as the more budget you put into a game, the more sales you need to have.

For example In Japan if a AA or Indie title gets 100k sales it's considered a success because it made it's money back and made a ton of profit due to not having huge budgets for unnecessary things. But with higher budget titles like Spiderman 2 which was 280 million or so, you need higher sales, which means it needs to make 8 million sales vs something like Gravity Rush which only needs 200k because the budget is smaller with 13 million, and if it does it makes more money and more profit than Spiderman 2. While Spiderman 2 if it fails like Concord did, you are now 280 million in the hole or 200 million vs a Gravity Rush that is perhaps 5 to 4 million or 1 million of loss which is easier to take a risk on vs something that is just too much budget and spending. It's kind of what Sony fans leave out of their own comments when defending their own company or Jim Ryan never talked about because they know those games are not sustainable. It's also why Nintendo is very successful. BOTW is 20 million in budget so by the time it passed 350k sales it literally made a huge ton of profit, and also made it's money back for the next game.

 

[Rama]

estimated sales of 25,000 copies sold on week 1

I don't even trust this estimate. If 25k people bought this trash then why is the peak player count less than 700 people? They only got like 2k players for the FREE open beta too. There's the PS version too but from what i heard, i doubt it's in the 10 of thousands.

They don't even have the excuse of people in other countries going to sleep or anything (like with Wukong). 99,9% people playing this trash are from the US. Did they count giveaways copies for these 25k or what?

 

[sunofpearl89]

It would be so easy for Sony to come out with a Master Chief Collection style remaster bundle for the Killzone games with cross-play and all that junk.

Shame, really. Sony used to have a terrific multiplayer FPS suite on the PS3 between SOCOM, Resistance, Killzone etc. I also second the sentiment that Sony should stop betting on big "blockbuster" types of games so much and release more strange, quirky, experimental "AA" stuff. LocoRoco? Patapon? Anyone?

 

[anru]

E.T. from Atari did better than this knock off overwatch.

 

[JX475]

It would be so easy for Sony to come out with a Master Chief Collection style remaster bundle for the Killzone games with cross-play and all that junk.

Shame, really. Sony used to have a terrific multiplayer FPS suite on the PS3 between SOCOM, Resistance, Killzone etc. I also second the sentiment that Sony should stop betting on big "blockbuster" types of games so much and release more strange, quirky, experimental "AA" stuff. LocoRoco? Patapon? Anyone?

It's very odd to think about. But everything creative from East to West was killed for Concord and these flashy AAA/GAAS type of games that appeal to no one. Meanwhile Astrobot is most likely going to be a huge hit from Sony showing that people just want good games again from Japan and that essentially Astrobot proves that the industry greatly misunderstood the trajectory of where games should go.

The sad part about what you are saying is that I have been hoping for the Killzone trilogy and the Uncharted trilogy, even M.A.G remade in the modern day would easily have been a hit especially if there was cross-play with PC audiences. These games do sell, the fact that people are now rushing to get ShadPS4 to run Bloodborne at 60fps and to complete the game fully should be a wakeup call that people miss that era. Including the Kickstarters of

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ratata-arts/ratatan

Former people behind Patapon

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/doublekickstarter/armed-fantasia-and-penny-blood

Armed Fantasia & Penny Blood, same people behind Wild Arms, and Shadow Hearts.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tinywonderstudio/korobo

The people behind Chibi-Robo and already has a Steam Page.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/meguroshoji/guns-undarkness/description

Guns Undarkness by Shoji Meguro(Famous Atlus Composer from Persona, Catherine to SMT) has a Steam Page.

That the creative experimental games are desired and needed because all of them met their funding goals and most met their stretch goals pretty easily. People demand these games, and I am sure new AA studios are going to pop up soon now that people like Itsuno, Kamiya and others are getting a wakeup call from this to reorient the industry where it needs to be. Full of choices and options. Not forced cultural hegemony but free from it.

 

[Poker]

LOL. One of the artists who worked on this stinking pile of shit:

 

[Christi Junior]

Lol, Protected Twitter Account:

x.com

x.com

Surprised by the lack of "preferred pronouns" tho.

 

[PhantomXero1x]

LOL. One of the artists who worked on this stinking pile of shit:

View attachment 20873

That doesnt even look like nge at all.

 

[JX475]

LOL. One of the artists who worked on this stinking pile of shit:

View attachment 20873

This is ugly , it looks like those Tumblr drawings back in the day. Where all of the women look like failed men and have to look ultra realistic in the worst possible ways. This is why the West has never been able to make good looking characters because they hate beauty in it's purest form, they hate boobs, they hate having any form of the lower end variety, they only wish to redefine as ugly, while everyone runs to Asian and Euro beauty standards. Which I can not blame them.